[rescue] Phaser ink

[Mr Ian Primus]

--- On Wed, 8/20/08, Curious George <jorge234q at yahoo.com> wrote:

> But what about, for example, a 3x4" photo on one
> page...
> would it transfer to the "back" of the page above
> in the
> same circumstances?

I doubt it, but I don't know. I just remember having a mapquest page folded up and wedged somewhere, and the folded map image stuck to itself. I don't remember what the image looked like. I woulnd't worry too much about it.

But, a soldering iron will melt the ink off. Play with it - it's fun!
 
> > On the 850, you can simply add a bunch of ram (PC100).
> If
> > you install 128mb or more, I think, and it will
> believe it's
> > the DX, which can duplex.
> 
> Excellent! Worth remembering!  So, if I stumble across an
> 850, I should swap out the 840 (and/or 860??) in favor of
> it?

The 860 is a better machine overall - faster processing and better features.

The 850 is better than the 840 in terms of speed, but it has it's weaknesses. The top flip-up cover (the one that says "Tektronix Phaser 850" was made too thin on the edges at the pivot on the 850, leading to a lot of these covers breaking. The 840 did not have this problem. The 840 print heads seem longer lived, wheras the 850 heads seem to fail from jet stack heater failure. The Y axis assembly was improved slightly on the 850. The 840 power supplies are better than the 850, 860 and 8200 supplies - and they're compatible with all these machines. While the heads are electrically compatible between the 840 and 850, the 840 head must be gapped and aligned, where the 850 head is factory aligned and only needs to be bolted in. The 850 logic board processes print jobs faster, and the clean cycle at poweron seems to use less ink (and it doesn't print that solid ink-filled cleaning page).

When replacing the maintenance tray guides, try to get the green colored ones, the ones made of the blue plastic are more brittle and tend to break from the heat.

I use an 840 chassis with it's original head, power supply, covers and such, with an 850 logic board, newer style rapid release guides and newer tray guides. The 850 parts that I have came from 850's with failed print heads.
 
> > If you find a junked 850, save it, the logic board can
> be
> > swapped into your printer, and it will run a bit
> faster,
> > render faster, and it won't waste as much ink at
> > startup. Also, it's easy to upgrade an 850 to
> duplex.
> 
> Presumably, if I find a *working* 850, it would be
> preferable to keep in lieu of the 840?

Probably - but keep your 840 around for parts - or upgrade the 840 with 850 parts.
 
> I use the LJ4M+ for that -- it seems more economical
> (getting
> a spare toner cartridge is relatively easy) and *feels*
> faster...
> But, that's only B&W stuff.

While I love my Phasers, I have a 5si that I use for a lot of large print jobs. The 5si is faster, and I have the duplexer and 2000 sheet tray. The 5si is great for schematics because it also has an 11x17" paper tray. The 5si is another wonderful machine. I upgraded it with the Postscript SIMM and more memory. It runs great. I have a little LaserJet 4M+ (no duplexer though) that have in the workshop for printing "stuff".

Printers are fun.

-Ian